To Live and Let Go
by sixfeetunderthestars
Summary: As he turned the corner of Diagon alley, that was when he spotted her. Her bushy mane of brown curls disappeared as soon as he saw them. But no… it couldn't be her. Hermione Granger had been dead for over a year now. Draco, however, wasn't going to wait to find out. He rushed after her with one thing pushing him on… curiosity.


__**Chapter One**

_The willow tree swayed in the breeze above them as they laid under it. Her curly brown locks ran down the side of her face, her bangs forced sideways as she laid on her side. She laughed, her brown eyes smiling back at him as the setting sun reflected in them. She brought a hand up to the side of his face and caressed it. "Draco." She said his name so peacefully, like an angel, and for a second, he truly felt like he was in heaven. He closed his eyes at her touch and inhaled a deep breath, breathing in the smell of the tall grass around them._

* * *

When he opened his eyes, everything was dark and gloomy, everything was back to normal. He sighed, running a hand through his hair and standing up from his seat in The Leaky Cauldron. She was gone. She was gone from this world, from this life, from _his_ life, and soon she would be gone from his dreams and memories because he would forget her. He _needed_to forget her. The year he spent with her had been the best year of his life, but all good things much come to an end.

At least here they did.

The wood of the chair scraped against the stone of the floor as Draco pushed it in. Grabbing the last of his firewhiskey, he tilted his head back and finished it in one gulp, placing the empty glass, along with a few sickles, on the table. He pulled his cloak tighter against him before making his way out towards the deserted, wet streets of Diagon Alley.

What had been a downpour earlier had turned to a slight drizzle as thunder boomed in the distance and more clouds began to roll in. Throwing his hood over his head and securing his wand in his cloak, Draco began his rounds for the night before he would find his partner and they would both retreat home. His partner, Hennix, a respectable Death Eater who hadn't disappeared for a year, lived in his deceased parents manor, surrounded by all the wizarding money and jewels his parents had left him.

Draco, on the other hand, would walk his way to the most deserted street of Diagon Alley, walk up to a second hand book shop, go down the alleyway, and then up a set of stairs to his crappy one bedroom flat above the bookshop. He didn't love it here, but he had no choice. Running away for a year has its consequences, including exile.

"Malfoy." Draco looked up to see Hennix, short, round, and mean looking, approaching him. "Well?"

Draco hated the way he talked to him. He didn't care if Hennix was almost a decade older than him, he didn't have any right to order him around. Draco, however, sighed under his breath and ignored this fact, answering his partner before he could report back to The Dark Lord that he was becoming snappy towards him. "I just have Handove Lane and then I'm done." Draco nodded towards the street that was directly to his right.

"Well, hurry." Hennix ordered. "It's bloody cold out here." He finished just as a cold March breeze blew through the street, forcing them to pull their cloaks against their bodies more.

Draco didn't respond to Hennix's order. Instead, he ignored him and started towards Handove Street so he could finally get out of the cold rain and into his warm bed. As he turned the corner of Diagon alley, that was when he spotted her. her bushy mane of brown curls disappeared as soon as he saw them. But no… it couldn't be her. Hermione granger had been dead for a year now. Draco, however, wasn't going to wait to find out and rushed after her with one thing pushing him on… curiosity.

Sprinting as fast as he could, Draco turned the corner that led down the alley and stopped when he saw her. Her back was the him, wand in her hand, as she examined the fence that stood a good three feet over her head, blocking her way out. "Expelliarmus!" He yelled, his wand jabbing the air in her direction. He watched her wand go flying and she quickly turned her head to face Draco, her brown eyes wide like a deer in headlights. Draco's grey eyes locked on hers, his wide as well, only from shock rather than fright. "Granger?"

There was no denying it. This was Hermione Granger standing in front of him, the same person the Death Eaters had found a year and two months ago lying on the forest outside of a muggle town. She had been found knocked unconscious, but would have been better off dead. At least then she wouldn't have had to die at the hands of Voldemort like she did. Draco remembered it vividly because he was there when they brought her in. He was in the room when Voldemort had chuckled at her death. He also remembered it perfectly because that was the day that the last of the Golden Trio had perished. That was the day that Draco lost all hope of being part of another world… one where Voldemort didn't exist.

As he watched Hermione's chest rise and fall rapidly, her heart racing in her chest, he realized for the first time that he had the real Hermione Granger in front of him. If Potter, Weasley, and practically the whole Order were dead… like she was supposed to be, was there really any hope of saving the world that once was. He could easily stun Hermione and carry her skeletal body over his shoulder and back to Voldemort. He would be a hero.

With his wand still raised in the air, he took a step towards Hermione, his mouth opening slightly, preparing to say the curse. Hermione closed her eyes, her hands balled up into fist at her sides. This was when Draco really looked at her. She wasn't the same person from Hogwarts years. Her hair, although still a birds nest, was more matted then he had ever seen it. Dirt and grease stuck onto every strand of hair on her head. Her body had patches of brown all over it, obviously from not showering or being able to clean herself for Merlin knew how long. And then he looked at her body. He clothes hung loosely from her, her legs and arms practically bone. No, this wasn't the Hermione Granger he knew.

"Malfoy!" Draco almost dropped his wand at the sudden shout of his name coming from the main road behind them as Hermione's eyes shot open, locking onto Draco's. They stared at each other for what felt like hours until the shout came again. "Malfoy! Where in the bloody hell are you boy?"

Silence again, until finally… Hermione spoke. "What are you waiting for?" She asked in a small whisper, so quiet that Draco was surprised he had heard it. "Kill me." Her voice cracked as she said this, tears now feely falling down her face, clearing some of the dirt off in a straight line. She choked out another sob. "Kill me."

It didn't take Draco long to realize that she wasn't challenging him or bossing him around… she was begging him. She wanted to die. Draco licked his lips nervously before shaking his head and lowering his wand. He couldn't kill her, he wasn't a murderer. She let out a tiny cry as more tears fell down her face, and Draco knew why. She was as good as caught, and if Draco didn't kill her himself, he would take her to Voldemort, where she would slowly be tortured to death. But no, Draco couldn't do that either, even if it would make him a hero to Voldemort.

Because suddenly, he didn't want to be a hero to Voldemort. He wanted to be a hero to her.

"MALFOY!" The yell came again, and Draco knew who it was coming from. If he didn't respond to him soon, he would get worse.

"I'm down here!" Draco yelled, his eyes not leaving Hermione, who was now sobbing harder. She thought this was it, she thought her life would end in Voldemort's grasps, the last place she wanted to be. Draco quickly pointed his wand at Hermione's wand that he sent flying earlier. It flew into his hand. He examined it with a quick glance before tossing it back to Hermione, who surprisingly caught it with ease, staring back at him with a dumbstruck look on her face. "I never saw you." He said under his breath.

Hermione couldn't help but smile back. She understood. Draco was letting her go. With a nod, she pulled herself onto a trash can and hoisted her leg over the fence, ready to run within seconds. But before she did, she turned back to Draco and smiled slightly. "Thank you." She said before disappearing, the skies pouring down rain again, leaving Draco to wonder if what he just saw actually happened or if he would wake up in a couple hours knowing it was all just a dream. Regardless, he knew that for once he followed his own heart and did what he wanted to do and not what someone else wanted him to do. Draco didn't move, he stared at where she stood seconds ago. For about a minute, he had been close enough to touch her again, to hold her again, to watch her die again. But now it was like it never happened. She was gone from his life… again.

Draco sighed, putting his wand away and turning just as Hennix rounded the corner. "What the hell Malfoy? What are you doing?" He snapped.

"I thought I saw someone." Draco answered quietly.

"Well? Did you?"

Draco paused, licking his lips as images of Hermione played over in his mind. "No." He finally answered. "It was just my imagination."

Draco threw his wet cloak on one of his dining room chairs before walking into the kitchen to make himself some tea. He placed the pot on the stove and started up the flames with his wand before making his way to the bathroom to dry his hair. As he was rying his hair, he thought he heart footsteps in the kitchen. He paused, straining his ears, but when he heard nothing else, he passed it off as his imagination.

Putting the towel on the edge of the sink, Draco made it to the kitchen just as his tea pot started to whistle. He quickly turned off the heat and turned for a cup, but froze, the tip of a wand inches from his nose.

"Give me your wand." Draco stared back into the brown eyes he knew so well. "Now!"

"Hermione… I'm not going to harm you. You should know that." Draco said calmly as he put his hands up in surrender, starting at the girl he loved yet again. He couldn't believe his luck, and despite all the questions he had running through his mind, he couldn't help but consider this a miracle.

"Why wouldn't you?" She snapped, hand now shaking.

Draco looked at her questionably. "I…. Do you really not remember?" He asked, but she didn't answer, her wand still pointing at him. "Hermione… how-how did you do it?" He watched her die, watched Voldemort perform the killing curse on her. She was standing before him, obviously alive, and he wanted to know how she had tricked them all.

"What are you talking about?" She asked through her teeth. "And _stop_ calling me by my first name!"

"Alright, fine." Draco said quickly as Hermione took a step closer to him. "How did you find me?"

"I followed you obviously."

"Why?"

"I-." She paused, licking her lips nervously. "You didn't kill me." Her voice was suddenly soft and quiet. "You didn't even turn me in."

"How could I?"

"You hate me." She stated this like it was the most common thing in the world, like they didn't have the past he knew they had together. If she did know about it, if she remembered, she wouldn't be questioning why he saved her because she would know of his true feelings for her. She would know how they came to love each other. He stared back at her in confusion. This couldn't be her. He had watched them carry her body away from The Dark Lord.

She _was_ dead.

"Who are you?" He asked quietly.

She lowered her wand slightly, biting her lips together as she stared back at the confused Slytherin in front of her. "Were you friends?" She asked in a soft tone.

"Who?"

"You and Hermione?" Draco didn't answer, he didn't know how to. Here was Hermione, a person who had been dead for a year now, standing in front of him and talking about herself in third person.

"I loved her." Draco answered truthfully, quietly.

Hermione lowered her wand a little more, her face falling. "Loved?"

Draco nodded, sighing slightly. "Yeah."

"Why don't you love her anymore?"

Draco sighed again, this time heavier. "I still do… but I can't. It's unhealthy for me to still love her." When Hermione only stared back at him with confusion, he said the one thing he never wanted to say aloud again. "She's dead."

Hermione let out a small sob, her mouth falling open slightly in shock as her wand arm fell to her side. Draco watched her eyes wander the room in thought as he took the opportunity to take a good look at her. She looked different. He didn't know why or what made her look this way, but she did. "I- I'm sorry." She finally said, lowering her head to the ground.

"She's been dead for a year now. _You've_ been dead for a year now." Draco said, not taking his eyes off her. Hermione slowly raised her head, her eyes finally meeting Draco's. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

Hermione stared at him for a few seconds before biting her lower lip. "I'm not dead."

"Obviously." Draco snapped. "Who are you, for real?"

"I'm Hermione Grange, just not your Hermione Granger." Draco raised his eyebrow in confusion. "I came here for answers… help, but I shouldn't have come."

"What are you on about?"

Hermione paused again before answering. "How old are you Malfoy? 18, Correct?" Draco nodded. "Don't I look different… younger." Hermione paused, waiting to see if Draco could figure it out on his own. When it was obvious he wasn't going to, she finally spoke. "I'm from the past."


End file.
